What are the Public Ivies – and are they really America’s best public colleges?

Due to the enormous cost of going to college in the US, potential students are searching for ways to mitigate their student debt. While some Americans are starting to doubt the value of a college education altogether, others are looking more seriously at public colleges – which, according to our research – generally offer better value than expensive private institutions.

But where are America’s most prestigious public universities? For several decades, pundits have been discussing a “Public Ivy League” to rival the original Ivy League in terms of academic rigor. In this article, we list the Public Ivies, rank them according to educational investment value, and propose a better way to establish the best public universities in the US. We show that the best public universities in the US may not be “Public Ivies” at all.

What is a Public Ivy?

The concept of a “Public Ivy” school is one attempt to determine America’s most prestigious public universities. Public Ivy colleges are meant to be analogous to the “Ivy League” – a group of elite, historical private colleges often perceived to be the best colleges in the US. Public Ivies provide a world-class education, but at a much more affordable price than the original Ivy Leagues.

The first list of Public Ivies was compiled by Richard Moll in his 1985 book The Public Ivys: A Guide to America’s Best Public Undergraduate Colleges and Universities. Moll singled out 8 colleges as Public Ivy schools, as well as 9 runners-up.

In 2001, Howard and Matthew Greene published The Public Ivies: America’s Flagship Public Universities, which updated the list of Public Ivies to include 30 schools. This new list of Public Ivy League schools also axed some of the originals, namely UC Santa Cruz, UC Riverside, and the University of Vermont.

List of Public Ivy League schools

Below is a list of all the Public Ivy colleges. We included the schools on both the Greene and Moll lists. The “original 8” Public Ivies are in bold (Moll counted all the UC schools that existed in 1985 as one single “University of California” school, devoting several pages of his book to each branch. That’s why more than 8 schools are bolded below).

• College of William and Mary
• Indiana University Bloomington
• Miami University
• Michigan State University
• Ohio State University
• Pennsylvania State University
• Rutgers University
• Binghamton University
• UNC-Chapel Hill
• University of Arizona
• University of California, Irvine
• University of California, Berkeley
• University of California, Davis
• University of California, Los Angeles
• University of California, Riverside
• University of California, San Diego
• University of California, Santa Barbara
• University of California, Santa Cruz
• University of Colorado Boulder
• University of Connecticut
• University of Delaware
• University of Florida
• University of Georgia
• University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• University of Iowa
• University of Maryland, College Park
• University of Michigan
• University of Minnesota
• University of Texas at Austin
• University of Vermont
• University of Virginia
• University of Washington
• University of Wisconsin–Madison

Students should keep in mind that unlike the original Ivy League, these are not really official lists. Instead, they represent the opinions of individual people based on their own criteria and research. That means that the definition of a Public Ivy is vague and subject to change.

The Public Ivies ranked: What is the best Public Ivy?

To rank the Public Ivies, we used government data from IPEDS to figure out which Public Ivy schools are the best investment. We found that the best Public Ivy is the University of Florida: it delivers the optimal combination of low tuition and high future earnings.

Are the Public Ivies really the best public universities in the US?

One problem with both the Moll and Greene lists is that their criteria for deciding which schools are “Public Ivies” are often vague. For example, one factor that Moll considered for a college to be deemed a Public Ivy school was “major cultural traditions celebrated”; he also looked at the university’s age and campus facilities. These factors have very little to do with success post graduation. Another factor proposed by both Greene and Moll is academic rigor, as captured by the college’s acceptance rate. However, we have shown that a lower admissions percentage does not necessarily correlate to better economic outcomes down the road.

This subjectivity casts doubt on whether the Public Ivies really do represent the best public colleges in the US.

Just like we ranked the “Public Ivies” based on educational investment in this article, we at Degreechoices have ranked the best public universities in the US based on their value for money.

Our list reveals some surprising contenders – which may not come to mind when students think about “public ivies,” or America’s best public colleges. Nevertheless, these are the schools where US college students are getting the most economic value out of the money they invest in their education. Our version of the “Public Ivies” reflects what colleges give you the biggest bang for your buck.

Closing

All the colleges that have been considered “Public Ivies” at some point are solid universities that are well worth the money. However, nearly 40 years after the publication of the original Public Ivy list, it is high time to revisit how we rank public colleges. Young Americans are less and less willing to take on decades worth of debt based on insubstantial investment factors like rigor, prestige, or even reputation.

Instead, students should make educational choices based on how likely it is that a specific college or major will lead to financial stability: even if this means opting for a less “fancy” degree.